New Music Friday – This Week’s Best Releases [UK]

As another week draws to a close, it’s time to get hyped for the weekend – and the summer holidays. Kick back and relax with new music from the likes of Arcade Fire, Alice, Cooper, The Fall, and more.

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While all the releases are available in digital and physical formats, you could save money and skip the hassle by streaming them instead. Amazon’s Music Unlimited streaming service is just £7.99/month for Prime members and has a collection of over 40 million songs. There is even a 30 day free trial if you want to take Music Unlimited for a test run.

Montreal’s Arcade Fire have built quite a following since their 2004 debut. Sure, the music has changed, but generally for the better. Everything Now continues that evolution and, according to Slant Magazine, has resulted in “Arcade Fire’s most upbeat and easily digestible album to date”.

The original shock rocker returns with the follow-up to 2011’s Welcome 2 My Nightmare. Featuring guest appearances with ZZ Top’s Billy Gibbons, U2’s Larry Mullen, and Roger Glover of Deep Purple. Members of the original Alice Cooper Band even drop in to write and record two new tracks.

Now in their 41st year Mark E Smith’s glorious band have returned with their 32nd studio album New Facts Emerge. As the legendary DJ, and long-time friend of the band, John Peel once said “they are always different; they are always the same.”

Dizzee Rascal is largely credited with the mainstream explosion of Grime. His debut album Boy In Da Corner set a template that many others followed. As time went on Dizzee moved further from his beginnings towards a more pop oriented sound. Raskit finds him ditching the glitz and glamour in favour of sparse beats and a focus on his many lyrical abilities.

When Nine Inch Nails released Not the Actual Events EP late last year, no one realised that it was the first in a trilogy of EPs. Add Violence is the second in the series and sees Trent Reznor again teaming up with his long-time collaborator Atticus Ross.